Young Shikako in the Arm in Arm ‘verse is searching for Ghost type Pokemon–perhaps in order to understand her existence–but instead finds her Growlithe in the Haunted Mansion… after that, she kind of lets the idea go. Until she gets a Sableye and whatever the Gelel equivalent incident happens.

Then again, just because Sableye is her only Ghost type, doesn’t mean she doesn’t encounter others before or after then (she just doesn’t catch them). Such as whatever the Land of Birds, Kisuke Maboroshi, and chameleon castle incident equivalents are. Probably Sasuke’s Cubone turns into an Alolan Marowak (Fire and Ghost type instead of classic Ground type seems more Sasuke’s style).

Although… if Sakako were in this ‘verse you know she’d have an all/majority Ghost type team. And I actually quite like the idea of Misdreavus/Mismagius being one of her older team members. Hm, let’s see… Sakako’s Pokemon line up would most likely be:

Rowlet/Dartrix/Decidueye – Grass and Ghost

as a compromise between the Uchiha Talonflame and the Nara Sawsbuck? After all, Itachi probably decimated the Uchiha’s original Talonflame flock so the Uchiha 2.0′s clan Pokemon would be something different

Misdreavus/Mismagius – Ghost

Misdreavus came to Sakako very early on in her childhood with no preamble or anything. They make each other happy and no one had the heart to separate them (although, why would they?) They’ve been together ever since

Snorunt/Froslass – Ice and Ghost

Snorunt was actually a gift from Sakako’s Mum, from her research trip to Land of Snow to explore some old ruins. Honestly had no idea it would end up a Ghost type.

Honedge – Steel and Ghost

Sakako isn’t yet a master swordswoman, but she’ll get there eventually.

Litwick – Ghost and Fire

Actually a preference she gets from the Nara side of the family. Shikamaru isn’t the only clan member to have one of this species–Kasuga has a Chandelure.

Duskull – Ghost

Her most recent Pokemon. It’s not the reason why she has The Reaper as a nickname, but this little guy floating at her shoulder certainly doesn’t hurt matters. And also, “A glare from its single scarlet eye makes even burly grown-ups freeze in utter fear.” ~Sharingan~

Sakako’s Ghost team! 😀

(I was considering her having a Phantump–but that didn’t really match her too well and she already has a Grass type–and she doesn’t need to have one in order to encounter a lot of them. A sad amount of them, really.

Where her parents were constantly spotted with Absol, she’s probably frequently seen with wild Phantumps.)

Just got home from traveling, anon, so I appreciate this ask as a quick post for today. Also, thank you! I’m oddly proud of the DoS Pokemon ‘verse even if it’s mostly ranting and brainstorms.

Team Eight I have some ideas for, but not as concrete as Team Seven or Team Ten (given the “screen time” for those two teams are way more than the others) so the following are pretty quick and less specific than those ones… [[will maybe add more detailed reasoning later?]]

Hinata:

Shino:

Ninjask (and Shedinja)

Pinsir

Volbeat

Kricketune

Scyther

Heracross

–

Kiba:

Lycanroc (as Akamaru, particularly Midnight Form as the equivalent of when he eats soldier pills)… but after that I don’t really know since I gave Kakashi the all dog team… I guess if I could break down Kiba and Akamaru’s attacks/abilities into Pokemon equivalents?

Monk!Shikako is maybe most like what you’re describing, I think. Except in your version, instead of Shikako knowing about the different AUs (because she lives them all) they are all discrete realities and it’s other people who travel across and find her. Which would be pretty appealing as a story, anon.

I feel like, though, that even if she tries to avoid the plot it still finds her somehow. Like, I mean, at the Fire Temple, maybe she and Sora (who is basically a Naruto-Sasuke fusion) become reluctant friends and together they do extracurricular training in trying to control his pseudo-jinchuuriki status, which may or may not help out when Akatsuki comes around? I don’t know.

And I’m also not sure much attachment Fire Temple monks are allowed to have. They’re obviously not the “enlightenment comes from total isolation” but I’m also not sure if, for example, by joining the temple Shikako had to forfeit her Nara status. Most likely she did have to forfeit any claim to heiress (and maybe some cruel and politically inclined rumors suspect that Shikaku deliberately sent his chakra hypersensitive child to the temple so that would be the case) but perhaps she does get to keep some attachment to her family. Even then, she’s probably not the first Nara to join the temple (maybe full time, yes, but Chiriku didn’t seem at all confused by her request for the month-long sabbatical).

What I’m saying is, I wonder if she’s allowed to visit Konoha and accidentally get involved with the plot despite her efforts. Like… since Chiriku used to be part of the Twelve Guardian Ninja–even though that particular organization did not end well–maybe he’s training Shikako to be his successor?

And so she is tasked with “lower risk” guard duty of the Fire Daimyo’s family members–I mean, the Fire Lady canonically hires Konoha genin to catch Tora frequently enough that everyone hates it–or brought along as Chiriku’s apprentice to protect the royal retinue during the Konoha Chuunin Exams. And look how that ended up.

A/N: When I was younger, I actually made a deck of tarot cards for myself (major arcana and the royalty of the suits only) and did readings for other people during one particularly lucrative Halloween dance.

I have not entirely grown out of that obsession–I almost made an angry rant about the DA:I tarot and how they didn’t match the right artwork/characters with the correct cards, but alas, I got halfway through and my anger couldn’t sustain itself–this is done with far more love and much less frustrated cursing.

For the most part I tried to keep it semi chronological (as the listeners experience it, that is) but certain characters matched certain cards too well for me to adhere to that strictly though I am up for suggestions of alternate designations if anyone is interested.

For some cards (the ones that aren’t actually people) the characters I listed would be more who I’d put on the artwork, were I to draw, and not necessarily the embodiment of the idea.

I have always loved the idea of ANBU!Sakura (in canon, that is) for much the same reasons that you’ve listed above, but also as a sort of… Hokage training? Or leadership training, rather (because, while my heart of hearts will always love the idea of Hokage!Sakura, there’s no way that she’d take the role from Naruto until he willingly gives it up–realizing that it’s not what will make him happy–or if he is unable to).

In DoS though, her career trajectory isn’t the same, especially since her starting point is different, so I’m not sure if ANBU would be the best/desirable path for her. Or at least not anytime soon. (Which is not to say that she wouldn’t be nominated for ANBU, but I don’t think she would accept it in the near future)

Her overall goal in life–as stated in DoS–is to prove herself as a capable kunoichi, such that she will one day have a symbol on the back of her clothes much the same way clan kids carry their clan symbols. Hers is the empty circle waiting to be filled. In canon it’s a little different–her goal is more… emotional, I guess, in that she wants to be a capable kunoichi to prove that she can stand alongside her two teammates.

Since she wasn’t put on a jounin led team in DoS–more specifically, the Team Seven that would, on their first C-rank, free a small country from the grips of an evil despot–and instead started in the Medic Corps, her main obstacle is that, to put it crudely, name brand recognition.

In DoS she starts as a medic and trains toward field readiness, whereas in canon she started as a field nin and directed her path towards medicine. She’s at least a year or more behind on field experience and spreading her name as a kunoichi who can, frankly, survive a lot of weird shit–Shikako got that instead (compounded, seeing as how I’m pretty sure Sakura never literally died at any point). As of Chapter 137, which is pre-Mist Chuunin Exams, DoS!Sakura hasn’t had any international exposure that canon!Sakura got by being on Team Seven.

She has to build her reputation more slowly, but because of that she can do so steadily and more carefully.

ANBU kind of defeats that purpose. Don’t get me wrong. It would–even just the training/audition–greatly aid her in getting field capable (ninja boot camp, level up in just two weeks!) but it would all be anonymous.

And how would she explain her sudden jump in ability? Either that or she’d have to already be capable enough that the ANBU training isn’t out of place, and by that point she’d probably have enough field missions under her belt (as either Tsunade’s second apprentice or as part of Team Anko?) that she wouldn’t need it as much.

Sasuke and Shikako want the anonymity: they’re at a point where their reputation exceeds their skills (or, rather, the risk of having such large reputations exceed their skills) so ANBU lets them use said skills without being hindered by their faces and names.

Sakura isn’t at that point yet. And given she’s not technically a Lucky Seven, that may never happen. Her reputation will probably match her ability throughout her career without any weird imbalances or spikes.

Of course, there are other reasons why people join ANBU, but I don’t really think they much apply to Sakura in either iteration.

As for the super-strength technique, if she were to join ANBU, she’d train herself against using it while wearing the mask (the same way Shikako trained herself against using shadow jutsu and other, easily recognizable techniques). I’d say her pink hair would be the most obvious thing, but I suppose in ~anime world~ pink isn’t explicitly weird? Harder to hide than regular brown and switching between braid and bun, but hand wave that.

I hope I’m not raining on your parade, anon. As I’ve said before, ANBU!Sakura is a wonderful image and I can only ever dream of being a fraction as badass.

I need to stream of conscious type this thing, because I’ve decided what I want to do for my first attempt at a full length script, but I don’t want to commit it to a word document just yet until I have it managed better in my brain. I used to do these kinds of things on my livejournal, but seeing as how the base of it is mostly on here, I figured for tagging/research purposes it’d be nice to put it here.

Also, missed posts are no good so…

Ode to 11010201 is a thinly veiled reference to my life, or what might have been my life in a world with magic. I am R and Zim is a nephew that I don’t have because if he were to have existed then he would already be five years old.

And so, the thing is, the idea of them being magical. Of them sharing magic, of using the term “gemini” to describe people who shared magic is very… American of me. Like, how America likes to tout about democracy (which isn’t really) and borrow Greek terms to make things sound more sophisticated or classical, when in fact, I imagine, that in a world of magic actual Greek witches would not use the Western Zodiac as a classification system.

They’d probably use Greek Mythology–like, earth witches in America would be Taurus witches, but in Greece they’d be called followers of Demeter or something like that. And it struck me that I know more about Greek Mythology and the Western Zodiac/astrology than I do about Filipino mythology and deities.

Which. Well. The series of invasions/conquering/imperializing/colonizing/occupation definitely didn’t help with that. The Philippines is caught in a struggle between Christianity and Islam, never mind that at their core both religions worship the same god. The same monotheistic, omnipotent, omnipresent god.

But that’s not what this is about.

Since Ode to 11010201 is based on me, I might as well flavor it even more with myself and make R Filipino-American, and Zim mixed. And the idea to contrast that with a Filipino immigrant who knows the ways of magic as their ancestors would have known it… and is still trapped in the American labeling: the Premier Taurus witch, who I had only vaguely considered being Faye Lin nee Peridot in the Court and Council ficlet…

Which. Well, seeing as how she blames Doctor Kaiza for the disappearance of her sister, Leanne, kind of gave an interesting parallel to R’s own search for her sister which I hadn’t really considered more fully until recently.

So the idea for the play that I have is more set in the Ot1 Redux ‘verse, with the main cast being Kaiza, Zim, R, and Faye–the latter two being called by their respective Council positions, Gemini and Taurus.

It starts much as the first Redux ficlet did, with Kaiza announcing to Zim that the Premier Gemini Witch would be coming to town.

Except it’s a much bigger deal because even if Zim doesn’t know much about magic–he’s the only witch in the region, even Kaiza, technically isn’t a witch, though she’s lived long enough to pick up some tricks and such–he knows that usually council luminaries only show up when something has gone wrong.

They don’t govern, they don’t dictate. They only mete out judgement when magical crimes have been committed.

And so, thinking that it’s a professional reason why she’s coming, Zim (and Kaiza, a little bit) are scared. And R, Gemini, that is, makes a good show of it. She’s only here searching for a particular witch. One who’s been shielding herself for almost two decades, who she has been trying to track down for nearly as long.

Which, obviously, construes to Zim as a criminal searching thing.

Except as time passes, more and more details are dropped, and it’s revealed that R/Gemini is not here in a professional capacity but a personal one. The witch she is looking for is her sister, who has only recently begun using her half of their shared magic. And she knows she’s here, she can feel it, but for some reason the scrying spells aren’t working (because she’s not scrying for the right things, or because Zim is in the same room as her when she’s scrying) and it’s been weeks.

She’s not allowed to renege on her duties for so long.

Because the role of luminary is just that, a duty. Not a privilege. It goes to the strongest witch of each category not because they want it, but because they’re the only ones with the ability to enforce punishments and tie together a new and chaotic society.

Btw, dunno if I wrote this already, but the idea is that magic had existed before, but went dormant for a very long time, and only awoke in the last century. More specifically, when Faye Peridot was a teenager. More specifically, when Leanne Peridot’s abilities went from cool party trick to bending the laws of physics. The Council was an attempt to bring peace at the sudden resurgence of magic.

I mean, I don’t know if I want the Counterclockwise backstory to be so specifically translated into the script–whereas this script will be as close to Ot1 as I can get–but the Peridot family were supposed to be descended from dryads and in pre-Spain Philippines, diwata were the main spirits invoked for good fortune, health, crops etc and they live in trees and if that isn’t some kind of sign that, hey, maybe they’re a family of Filipino immigrants then I don’t know what… I may have to tweak their background somewhat, though.

I mean, Peridot isn’t exactly a Filipino last name, now is it?

It could be something that got Americanized, though. Pamulaklakin means “to make bloom” which would fit and is long enough where someone could have just gotten tired and said. Slap some other P word on it. Or one of those families who did get renamed when the Spanish came, and Peridot in Spanish is just Peridoto so…

I’ll figure it out.

Sorry, I did say it’d be a stream of consciousness… honestly if anyone’s made it this far, I’m very surprised, this is mostly just rambling for my future self.

Uh, anyway. So:

KAIZAZIMGEMINI ®TAURUS (FAYE)

Act One would be Kaiza and Zim reacting to Gemini’s arrival. And the slow discovery of magic and family and the history of the world. It would end with Taurus’s arrival (a sort of bigger villain in the way of television shows, I suppose) who demands that Gemini come back and resume her duties.

Act Two would be a little more fraught. A lot of backstory for why exactly Gemini has no idea where her sister is until now. Taurus’ dislike of Kaiza. Possibly a red herring about how maybe Kaiza is eating them to power her immortality (which is, in her opinion, not something to be desired and thus absolute nonsense)…

Act Three would be the reveal about what happened to Taurus’ sister?

… or, wait, no… hm…

My sister says (ironically, the one that corresponds to the one R is looking for) that there’s no urgency to it.

Like. Why now? Why this story at this time with these people?

– Zim has only recently found out he has magic.

– As the closest thing to a witch in his area, Kaiza has stepped him to loosely teach what magic she knows to him.

– Gemini, feeling the other half of her magic being used for the first time in nearly two decades, takes leave from her duties as a luminary of The Council and goes across country to find her sister (who had sealed off her half of the magic two decades ago after some kind of fall out?** NEED TO CLARIFY)

… but still. Why now?

– Because there was a case before The Council which had been too harsh, which her words hadn’t been able to spare a witch who had made a small mistake, and so she seized this opportunity. She is the newest and youngest member of The Council, but only by default (Gemini witches are rare). Surely they would want to the complete set.

Given the importance of the ocean to both island cultures, its not surprising that both utilize spirals as their symbol of mystical badassery. But now that you bring it up, I’m imagining Uzushio also being a voyager society and that is SO DOPE?!

Because. Just. Obviously, a good chunk of Uzushio did die. But maybe not as many as we think. Maybe some of them did flee to the mainland, leading to the smattering of Uzushio descendants that we know from canon (and some that we don’t necessarily know–but I have separate headcanons for that). But what if the rest of them just left?

Maybe at first, they hid. Even if their barrier failed to stop the incursion from Mist (though I follow @blackkatmagic​’s theory on Danzo being involved in some internal sabotage there) there’s no way NO ONE was able to get to some kind of failsafe shelters for noncombatants. Konoha’s “secret” shelters/bunkers inside the Hokage mountain cannot be the only kind of fortified fallback.

So maybe they hid. They hid for as long as they could, for as long as their supplies would last. They waited for Konoha to send reinforcements or aid or anything that their alliance should have guaranteed for them. But nothing. Because Danzo（╬ಠ益ಠ)

And so, because they were mostly noncombatants–scared but all that remained of Uzushio–they decided to leave. They decided to revive their voyaging ways that had been nearly forgotten when Konoha was founded, when Konoha had falsely promised eternal sisterhood. Some of the noncombatants were elders who–while they may not physically kept their voyaging skills–still remembered the lessons that their elders had passed down. And so the remnants of Uzushio fled the Elemental Nations entirely, forsaking the continent that had forsaken them first.

Until, maybe, news of an Uzumaki–powerful, yes, but kind and determined and passionate–spreads even beyond the Elemental Nations. To where the flotilla of Uzushio can hear and begin to consider voyaging back home.